The Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) reported a total of eight suspicious fixtures to sporting authorities in February, whilst detailing successful operations at two major events. 

Updating industry stakeholders in its latest newsletter, the international bet monitoring organisation outlined the measures it had implemented at the Beijing Winter Olympics and Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).

Notably, GLMS partnered with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ahead of the games in the Chinese capital – part of the Olympic governing body’s wider bet monitoring and integrity efforts, which included training programmes and partnerships with the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) and Sportradar.

GLMS and the IOC cooperated on information sharing as well as education, building on previous partnerships around both summer and winter Olympic Games in the past, whilst conducting bet monitoring with the Olympic Movement Unit on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions (OM Unit PMC).

Setting up an adhoc group to address the integrity needs of the Winter Games, GLMS involved “at least 22 member lotteries” from the international industry to share local information on teams, athletes and the coronavirus, in addition to “expertise on specific sports” to address the unique nature of Olympic events.

Lastly, GLMS also leveraged the support of its Chinese lottery member, the CSLO, which it detailed “lent valuable support with analysis, monitoring and real-time inputs”, whilst additional measures saw consultations with experts in “specific sports” on which betting occurs primarily at the Olympics.

In addition to the Beijing Games, GLMS established a second adhoc committee consisting of 20 lottery organisations for AFCON in February, which took part in “meetings and exchanges” in a bid to bolster the protection of the competition’s integrity. 

Taking a similar approach to Beijing, GLMS utilised the assistance of a local member, the La Marocaine des Jeux et des Sports (MDJS – Morocco), which shared region-specific information and news on a regular basis. 

GLMS President Ludovico Calvi said: “GLMS successfully completed two internal ad-hoc groups, with over 2/3 of our members participating, to monitor, assess, and address any integrity issues surrounding the 2022 AFCON Men’s Cup and then the Beijing Games. GLMS in parallel also supported the IOC in its integrity work during the Games. 

“We particularly are proud of our members, MDJS (Morocco) and CSLO (China), who supported our work from the ground respectively in Africa and China, during the two events.”